Microsoft Corporation has named Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as its new chairman, in place of John Thompson.
On Wednesday, it announced that the independent directors of the board unanimously elected the Indian-origin Nadella. According to The Verge, it is the first time in two decades that Microsoft’s chairman will also be its CEO, after the software giant’s co-founder Bill Gates originally stepped down as CEO in 2000.
Also, Thompson, who took over as chairman from Bill Gates in 2014, will serve as lead independent director.
Nadella was appointed Microsoft CEO in 2014 after taking over the position from Steve Ballmer.
Nadella’s Twitter bio now reads as ‘Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation’.
The recent change comes after Bill Gates officially left the Microsoft board entirely in 2020.
The Man Of The Moment: Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella was born to a Telugu speaking Hindu family in Hyderabad.
Satya Nadella completed his primary education from Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet. He later pursued Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka.
Nadella completed M.S. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990.
He also pursued MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1966.
Satya Nadella started his career as a member of technology staff of Sun Microsystems. In 1992, he joined Microsoft.
Nadella got promoted to corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions in the year 2001.
Later on, he was the President of the Server & Tools Division (2011-2014). He vividly helped the company to bring Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud.
Satya Nadella was appointed as the new CEO of Microsoft on February 2014.
Here are some interesting facts about Satya Nadella:
- Transformed Windows Live Search into Bing, which now provides the informational backbone to a wide range of Microsoft services
- Led the team which developed Office 365, SkyDrive, Xbox Live and other Microsoft cloud-centric applications
- When Nadella took on the role of CEO, Bill Gates re-joined the company to become his personal mentor
- Nadella is a huge cricket fan. His favourite cricketers are Sachin Tendulkar & Virat Kohli
- Nadella met his wife Anupama when they were both students at Hyderabad Public School in the early ’80s.
- Fan of Seattle Seahawks which is a professional American football team based in Seattle
- Enjoys running and writing poetry
(With ANI Inputs)